Mono relatives pose on the land. Photo provided by the author.We are honored to continue our series of blogs on the Summer 2025 Special Issue of the Fourth World Journal with a powerful poetic contribution titled “18 Broken Treaties” by Tashina S. Boyer. This deeply personal piece reflects on the unratified treaties signed by 122 California Native American tribes in the early 1850s—agreements that were never ratified by Congress and deliberately hidden for decades.
As an Indigenous woman of Mono descent living in San Francisco, Boyer brings her own lived experience into conversation with this buried history. Through a striking erasure-style poem, Boyer transforms historical absence into presence, reclaiming the language of broken treaties and layering it with her reality as a California Native.
Hear Tashina speak about her experience as a California Native in inspiring this remarkable piece.
By Tashina S. Boyer
“18 Broken Treaties” is a piece that explores the lasting effects of the 18 treaties signed by 122 California Native American tribes between 1851 and 1852. Congress never ratified these treaties, and the President never signed them. California has not made amends for this, which left many tribes without land or protection. California representatives influenced the U.S. Senate’s decision and ordered that the broken treaties be hidden for 50 years. My erasure-style poem brings these broken treaties to the front and center while adding my voice and experience to the discussion. As a California Native, my goal is to show my readers the ways that broken treaties have negatively affected Native people and their communities in California and throughout the United States of America. Although this short piece doesn’t analyze each treaty, it adds visibility and awareness about how the Mono people continue to be creative and resilient.
Tashina S. Boyer is an Indigenous Native located in San Francisco and is a descendant of the Mono People. She is a graduate student at San Francisco State University and will have an MFA in Creative Writing with a focus on creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry in May of 2025. Tashina has a certificate in the teaching of composition, a B.A. in Creative Writing, and a minor in Women and Gender Studies. She is a first-generation college graduate who is passionate about education equity, gender studies, and accessible healthcare for all. Tashina is currently writing her memoir titled The Woven Whispers of Shae: Weaving Threads of a Past Forgotten and finishing up her young adult novel titled The Lost Rivers of Smalley Cove.
The library is dedicated to the memory of Secwepemc Chief George Manuel (1921-1989), to the nations of the Fourth World and to the elders and generations to come.
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